We had 2 more treks at the UNESCO heritage site "Bwindi Impenetrable National Park", where it is known for the tough terrain as its name suggests.

In order to reach the Nkuringo group of mountain gorillas, we endured a hike on a rocky mountainous and unpaved road prior to entering the park, crossed a stream and hiked up through a thick forest. Initially we witnessed 2 massive mountain gorillas playing in the bush; a blackback chasing the No. 2 silverback down the hill toward us. Our guide said it was a rare event to witness as not many blackbacks would be able to entice a silverback to play.

After a while, we left those 2 hulks to burn their testosterone, and we carried on looking for the rest of the group. The family is known for their friendliness as they are one of the first habituated gorilla groups at Bwindi. We saw a few members of the group scattered around in the thick forest, then the dominant silverback, Rafiki, led them to feed on something nestled on the fallen tree. It was like a buffet hat lasted for almost the entire hour of our visit, with the gorillas feeding in sequence in order of seniority. This young gorilla was resting on the tree they were feeding on earlier. I guess he was induced into a food coma!

Categories

It was the muddiest day of my life in the wilderness. We walked almost 6 hours and only covered 8km. The trail was fresh which mean our guides and trackers had to create a path with a machete. The path was narrow, muddy and somewhat steep. I must say that the trek today was certainly a challenge. The highest point we reached was 2,800m and the total ascent was only 200m. Yes the altitude hit me. I found it hard to breathe at times.

Once we arrived at the stop point, where we geared up with nothing but cameras, we marched off deeper into the open where members of the Amahoro group were spending their morning. They were deep in very thick and tall bushes of stinging nettle. After a period of bright and harsh sunlight, the rain came. I loved this so much as you can see how beautiful they are under the rain.

We literally walked into their habitat where the family members of the Kwitonda group scattered around in thick forest; eating, lounging, playing and simply just being very much like us, humans.

Kwitonda (meaning 'humble') is the name of the very first group of mountain gorillas we tracked and it is also the name of the late dominant silverback that passed away a few years ago at the age of 40. Now there are 2 silverbacks in Kwitonda among the other 27 members.

I first saw a few pairs of mothers and babies and this guy, a very cute blackback. I couldn't take my eyes off his pretty face until the dominant silverback, Karevuro arrived.

Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) are the worst animals I have ever encountered. They eat seafood, A LOT of it! So they produce super massive amounts of stinky poop. Yes I was in the water under a cloud of dead seafood waste - sometimes I cannot help but wonder why most people think my life is good...

I will post a photo of when I was gassed by them later. I don't want to ruin your brekkie, lunch or dinner.

Categories

In Sinhalese, leopards are called Kotiya which is added in their Latin name, Panthera pardus kotiya. This guy is a male cub about 13-months old. He was resting behind a large log in a dry bushy field along with his sibling, a female cub.

There were many jeeps close to the log but we decided to leave because it was too chaotic. We made a detour then spotted a sloth bear running around a water hole. Later we made our way back on the same area where the cubs were seen earlier and parked away from the other jeeps. The guide signaled to us that one cub was coming our way. And there he came, running out of the shade into the open sandy field. It looked as if he magically hid his head blending into the environment.

Categories

It has come to the last bit of our late afternoon game drive at Wilpattu National Park. I was exhausted from holding my big lens hoping to capture fast moving flycatchers, gorgeous birds with super long tails and of course from the heat. I fell asleep unconsciously and woke up in the middle of thick jungle when my body felt that our jeep had stopped rolling on the bumpy road. First thing I heard was a repetitive screaming sound.

I quickly looked at my guide and he whispered "We found a leopard pair!".

Last thing I remembered before passing out was baking heat and bright light. Now waking up in a cool dark place and heard nothing but that continuous haunting call. I didn't pay much attention to that sound, I just wanted to be able to spot the leopards moving in the dense forest.

My eyes gradually adjusted to the low light environment. I spotted one leopard on the move but couldn't see the other one. Then he stopped and laid down on the little slope... in front of the female. Yes, that's the pair! Only parts of them were visible. Dense jungle is the perfect place for them to hide. It was dark and there were millions of branches and leaves all around them, creating a challenging situation to photograph. We were moving back and forth in our jeep to find a tiny gap to shoot. They didn't seem to mind the engine sound. Maybe that disturbing ongoing call in the background was louder. Anyway we were still whispering to each other the entire time and I’m not sure why we did that. We finally found a spot to shoot and against all odds, I managed to get a few photos.

A male Sri Lankan leopard resting in front of his mate before hunting time in the evening.

I later asked the guide how he could spot the leopards in such difficult environment. He mentioned about the call, that loud haunting call. It’s the call of gray langurs alerting their troop about incoming predators. Amazing huh?

Willpattu is the largest national park in Sri Lanka that was heavily mined during the civil war. Most of the land mines were retrieved and the wildlife are in a better place than war time. The park is so big that the population of leopards is unknown and it's likely that we might not see them while visiting the park.

Gray langur soaking up the sun.

I did not get a chance to capture the troop of gray langurs making the alert noise in the park. This langur is a resident of the Cinnamon Lodge in Habarana.

Categories

It was Monday! Yes, a boring Monday to some but it was my awesome day out into the sea. Yay!

I was out in search of Bryde's whales in the gulf of Thailand. Bryde's whales that roam Thai water are smaller than their friends found elsewhere so there is a speculation that they could be a new kind of Bryde's.